Creating A User Centered Website

A lot of companies create a website whilst only thinking about the money they’re going to make from it, rather than the experience the user is going to have whilst on it. It’s no secret that a business website is one of the biggest selling points, and for some, it’s the only selling point. So, what effect do you think creating a user centered website is going to do for your business? Well, it’s going to encourage sales and conversions for one. Plus, it really isn’t hard to set it up. All you need to do is have a vision in mind, and let the person creating your website know what you want from it. If you already have a website, there’s no time like the present to switch it up to create the best design possible for your consumers. We’re going to talk you through the process so you have the perfect website ready to use.

Navigation

The thing that so many businesses seem to fail to achieve is perfect navigation. Some of them can be clunky, and you can lose the navigation bar once you’ve clicked on one of the categories. If you want to create the perfect way for your customers to navigate, you should always make sure that you’ve got the bar on show, no matter what page they’re on. They might suddenly change their mind at the checkout, and wish to add something different. If the bar is there for them ready, it’s so easy for them to dip in and out of the sections they need. Plus, it makes it more professional on your end as well. The website looks smoother, and if it’s easier to navigate, you’re always going to be able to generate more sales through conversions. You can also use things such as woocommerce shortcodes to make the whole navigation process easier for them. They have shortcodes that allow the user to view their cart on the page, showing an order tracking form, and many more. These are little codes that you can add into your website yourself by going into the coded view of your website. All you need to do is find the right place to insert, insert it, and make sure you preview it before saving the changes.

Focus On Design

If your website is already designed, and you’ve followed the same color scheme and layout for a while now, then you might benefit from a little switch up. Like with anything in life, we focus on how good things look before we decide to buy it. Your website is no different. Customers like it to be aesthetically pleasing, if it isn’t, it’s so easy for them to turn away and find another company. Try and keep the design simple in terms of how many things you’re cramming onto a page. This will for one, make the website nicer to look at, and secondly, allow the loading time to be as quick as possible. There’s nothing worse than having to wait ages for a website to load when you’re desperate to buy something! Try and use some nice colors in there, the more plain the website is, the less attention it’s going to attract. However, be careful not to go tacky with this. Focus on using pretty and eye catching colours, rather than something that is perhaps a little too bold.

Sitemaps

Sitemaps are a form of orientation for the user that a lot of businesses feel their customers no longer use. However, believe it or not, a customer likes to see exactly what they’ll be able to find through your website from the sitemap. It doesn’t take long to sort, and a good developer will be able to whip up a quick and easy one in no time. It lets the user know where they are in relation to the other pages on the site, and helps paint a clearer picture of the website in general. The sitemap section can usually be found at the bottom of the page in the footer, but it’s up to you where you put it. It’s best to let the sitemap have its own page through a link. You don’t have to clog up all of the footer by making the sitemap visible on the home page. Always be careful to make sure the sitemap does not have too many links either, no matter where you put it. It can over complicate the process, and it’ll just look nasty on your website. So many companies seem to over complicate the process for no reason, so keep yours as simple as possible to try and improve usability.

Hopefully after reading this you will be armed with a few facts that will allow you to create a user centered website.